Customer Reviews

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats: A Journey Into the Feline Heart

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The plus side.... I found it an engaging read, and it did make me study my three cats more than I normally do. I like his assessments that there are more to cats then what we see on a surface view, and I agreed with most of the emotions listed and how they manifest themselves. The writing style was well done, and I liked the contemplative style of his prose.

The negative side... The author does not seem to realize that most of us do not live in rural beaches and rain forests, and for the vast majority of cats out there, the environment outside is hostile to small domestic animals. I am a volunteer in a cat shelter, and have been the unfortunate witness to many a bad situation caused by owners wanting their cats to be able to run free. I found it surprising that someone who was so anti-declawing (which I applaud) could be so naive as to the perils outside. Cats and toddlers alike may yearn to run into the street, but it doesn't mean those who are responsible for them should allow them to do so. I suppose it is not surprising; after all, it came from an author who was willing to give away a cat who had gotten somewhat cranky in middle age, as well as one who seems nonchalant at the end that his wandering cats were no longer spending their nights at home. But for someone who is truly concerned about their cat's welfare, the casual attitude was a bit hard to swallow. I am hoping that his current cats do not end up getting squished by a car like he admits the rest of them had in California.

Buy the book? No. But it might be worth checking out at the library.

Unfortunately, I did purchase this book as a guide to understanding my cat better. I guess I should have realized it would only help understand the author's cats better. Purely anecdotal accounts, no real expertise or science to his assertions. That may sound like no big deal, but realistically, every cat owner has a cute little story about their cat and an opinion about what they are thinking. So I was hoping this would go beyond his cute little cat stories. Frankly, by the third section, everything he said was running together, as there were no real main points presented. Also, I found it tiring to hear him talk about himself so much. Even his cats don't get full focus in this book, it's mostly him and his swims and walks on the beach. I wanted some depth and got a shallow swim with this one.

I have been a multiple cat owner all of my life and was hoping this would be an inciteful read given the author's previous popular works - what a disappointment. His assessment of cats personalities is elementary, and loaded with generalizations. Cats personalities vary widely and you cannot write a book based on spending 1 year with kittens, particularly the exotic breeds that he has. He states the obvious as if it was a revelation (i.e. cats ancestors are naturally solitary hunters which he states over and over again as rationale for his opinions) - DUH!! He rambles quite a bit in each chapter and sometimes contradicts opinion from one chapter to the next. Some stuff was out an out wrong (i.e. "All cats immediately warm up to humans but not to their own species" - say WHAT?). About the only thing I liked were his opinions on declawing, and agreement that cats would prefer to be free to roam. But thats just not possible for many these days - and to say that cats who cannot are not truly happy is an ego stroke to the author (who lives in New Zealand where his cats can roam - I doubt he moved there for his cats sake).

This is not the book about cats that it wants to be. The acclaimed author is uncomfortably personal and intrusive and manages to be in the way like a young father too proud of his new video camera to just tape his children at play. To budding authors, this book could serve as a warning: What can go wrong when you become too famous for your own good and you believe your audience will find you as interesting as you find yourself. Who cares whether the author is a personal friend of other authors? A good editor will help (read: force) an eager and proud writer to remove himself from his treatment of the topic and make it interesting to people who have no interest in the author, and this is more important the more famous the author. Nancy Miller is acknowledged with editing this book, but it is depressingly unedited. The author is also a "provocative psychoanalyst", but there is no evidence of a scholastic aptitude here. To make matters worse, a childhood encounter with a narcissistic literary critic is only related on page 6, not learned from: That paragraph describes how the entire book feels to the reader. Do look inside the book.

However, if you tolerate the author and want to snuggle up with your cat and him for company, it may be an OK book to read a chapter from each night, as it is both charming and sometimes amusing, but if you intend to study or just learn about the presumed emotional lives of cats, forget it. This reviewer believes that cats communicate with us the same way music does, directly to our emotions before thought can intervene, and sought more information on the emotional bond between cat and human. Since Doris Lessing learned from this book and Desmond Morris found it thought-provoking, perhaps the gems they found were on the very next page, but the book merely ran out of pages. To make matters worse, it does not conclude, it ends with an epilogue, to confirm the impression that the book is not about the emotional lives of cats, but about the author and his too brief fascination for his too many too young cats. Like a term paper handed in with the tacit assumption that reader and writer know and accept a purpose outside of the text, the question "why should I care?" is as unanswered as it is unasked.

There are anywhere from 12 to 15 different emotions crammed into the "nine lives" that double as chapters, which is much too cute to be convenient, much less insightful: Narcissism, Love, Contentment, Attachment, Jealousy, Fear, Anger, Curiosity, Playfulness. If you have taken an active part in a cat's life for a year, you know more about all of these than this book can offer.

I cannot remember where I heard of this book, but it seemed like an interesting enough topic to read about, so I decided to pick it up from the library. Some reviewers have commented on the lack of hard science involved in this book. I wasn't expecting any. This is a book on the observable emotions of cats and the examples used are the 5 young cats of the author. As would be expected, the book contains the author's prejudices regarding his cats and how they should live and behave. As such, this is a fairly interesting book.

The book deals with nine emotions: Narcissism, Love, Contentment, Attachment, Jealousy, Fear, Anger, Curiosity, and Playfulness. Each of these are granted a chapter (or to be more accurate, a section) in the book. I do own a cat (he is 10 months at the time I write this), but I am not familiar with a lot of the feline emotions. The insight provided in this book can be obtained simply be observing cats for extended periods of time, but it is interesting to have it all in one place. It must be stressed, however, the Masson does not do extensive research (though he is well read). Most of the information provided comes from the author's observance of his 5 cats.

Masson stresses that cats cannot be happy unless they have the opportunity to freely wander outside. This may or may not be true, but for most people not living on a beach in New Zealand in a very safe neighborhood, this just is not an option. We provide the best life possible for our cats, but sometimes the cat can only be an indoors cat and I do not feel that my cat is living a horrible life.

The author is well-intentioned in writing this book, but we should not assume that everything he says is exactly correct. Our own observations will give us the truth of Masson's statements.

As a cat lover, I was a real sucker and bought this book on the strengh of the cover, which advertised that the author was a NTY bestselling writer. I thought it would be a thoughtful analysis of cats and their emotions. Moreover, the author is a "psychoanalyst" and I thought that meant he would insert some science in his observations, quote some interesting research, and enlighten us all.

Well, I was sorely disappointed by the end of the second chapter, and I couldn't finish the book!

Basically, the author just adopted 5 cats and started writing about his touchy-feely emotions about their behavior. His book is full of poor writing and gross platitudes, so much so that you just can't go on after a certain point. It's almost like a very boring diary written day to day about someone's pet. There is no attempt to liven it with humor or enrich it with philosophy.

He is too uninteresting a personality for his observations to count. While Montaigne and Bill Bryson can enthrall us even as they just go on and on about their personal observations, Masson cannot because his thoughts just aren't interesting and are poorly expressed to boot. I started suspecting that maybe English isn't his first language, but that's not the main problem either.

I am upset that someone can get something like that published and charge $$$ for it, where there are so many good writers out there who claim that their book proposals are constantly rejected. I suppose it's because he's published an NYT best-seller before.

Lastly, I object to the fact that the author claims to be a psychoanalyst - what is that exactly? His medical background or educational degrees are not listed in his bio. In fact, nothing in his bio tells me that he is qualified to write about animals, let alone about psychoanalysis.

Another book which is full of humor, interesting everyday observations, and also a solid science background (citing breakthrough research, etc.) has already been written. It's Dr Nicholas Dobson's "The Cat Who Cried For Help". Dobson is a vet and teacher at Tufts. Not only is he a man of science, he is a great writer. That book really does what Masson's book failed to do - bring us one step closer to understanding the feline mind. Buy that one instead!

P.S. Another irksome thing is that on the very first page of his intro, Masson already fesses up that he actually GAVE AWAY his previous set of dogs and cats when he moved to London (because of quarantine laws). He simply adopted a new set when he got to a new country.

You do not give away your companion animals. You simply (like me) do not move to London.

This book is what a friend calls "Okay, honey, I'll be finished typing this chapter in five minutes" book. It's slipshod, reads like the author was on snooze alert for most of it, like he was rushing to get the second half of the book advance. He writes flattering things about big names like Desmond Morris in the book, then gets them to write blurbs praising the book--pretty tacky and not done by reputable writers. It's really disrespectful to readers, to type a bunch of stuff off the top of your head, slap it together, and charge 20 something bucks for it. I felt like I was supporting Masson's house payments, not reading.

This is an interesting subject but the author did not take this to it's full potential. At times a difficult & confusing read and the author consistently contradicts himself regarding the subject matter and seems to not be able to make even his own mind up regarding even his own theories. Most of the narrative of the text is over-psychologised and preachy (possibly PETA sympathies & bias), and the author jumps from one subject to another without completing his previous thoughts & analysis on the emotion he's talking about at that particular time. The stories of the author's cats are amusing and interesting but the analysis is contradictory. At times, the emotions his cats clearly exhibit the author ends up discrediting the proof and then in the next sentence he changes his mind. This is a study & observation of the author's own cats, not a study of many over a long period. Just as human beings are of a same species,all are different & have different personalities, so too I believe animals have unique personalities and traits that are unique to them, in addition to the emotions that are universal to them.

I'm a licensed veterinary technician, specializing in emergency and critical care and have 6 cats of my own, along with a German Shepherd dog, and a lot of the emotional traits the author states cats do not have, I have observed that they do have, both in my own feline companions and also in the ones I care for. This book seems more of a thesis collection of data and amusing observations instead of information regarding this great creation of God, the cat, and the feelings & emotions of genuine love that this living being truly has. I was so excited about this topic in animals finally being written about but was disappointed in that this wasn't further expounded upon in this book.

I'm almost annoyed that I feel compelled to write a slightly defensive and certainly protective review of this book but there you have it. In sweeping general response to the various criticisms posted on this page, my thoughts are the following. Of course all cats are unique as are all humans. Criticizing an author or his/her output for neglecting to state as much is almost silly. Shall we expect every biography, non-fiction work or novel to specify that the character/s don't represent all of humanity? Granted, Masson overstated his argument a bit with a generalized title, but I can forgive him this and thoroughly enjoy his discussion of his relationships with and meditations on his cats. And make no mistake...this is a meditation of sorts, a musing on the behaviors, expressions, and characters of his cat friends. I personally loved this book, maybe because I, too, spend a great deal of time and attention studying my feline friend, Stryder, who is as individualistic and defined as any human I've ever met. To sum, read the book, enjoy it for what it is, appreciate Masson's insight (which is substantial) and don't expect a clinical guide to cat behavior.

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson graciously offers us a glimpse into the mind and heart of our feline companions. As a former wildlife biologist, I find this exploration refreshing. Often, he qualifies his thoughts by writing "This is what I've heard." or "This is what I'd like to believe." I enjoyed the author's openess and willingness to let us in on what he really wants to believe while mixing in scientific fact. It was a balanced weaving of both.

I had the opportunity to hear the author speak on his book tour and was moved by his insights. I was also impressed by his strong opinions. Bravo! He believes that cats can't be truly happy unless they are allowed to roam free (cat door or flap). They can be content if confined indoors, but not truly happy!